MBW - 3/1/2022
Good morning friends. Spring finally came to the Northern hemisphere. Let’s get started.
Another day of war in Ukraine. During the past 24 hours the eastern city of Kharkiv has been under heavy bombardment. Many civilian victims reported. From videos on social media there are allegations that Russia is using cluster bombs in civilian areas which would me it a war crime.
Russian forces appear to be using cluster bombs to destroy entire residential blocks in Kharkiv. This is a fall-back tactic Russia have a habit of using to instil fear into the population. Like in Grozny. Sound on. That sound is terrifying even from a distance. #UkraineCluster bombs contain butterfly mines banned by the Geneva convention as inhuman. Here’s a small explainer:
Yesterday the Ukrainian government applied for EU membership.
In the meantime the nihilism of the state media in Russia is on a league of its own:
Speaking of leagues, Russia has been banned from FIFA, UEFA and many other sport organizations. Vladimir Putin has been stripped off his black belts in judo and taekwondo.
Coming back to Putin and his long table, the speculation is that he may be immuno-compromised and is trying to keep distance to avoid a Covid infection. Some have suggested that his bloated face might be because he is on some sort of steroid.
Moving on, many believe that the game-changer weapon for Ukraine in this was has been the utilization of Turkish-made drone named Bayraktar TB2. This drone has been successfully deployed before in the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as in Libya and Syria. I was aware that it helped Azerbaijan win that war but I had no clue at which degree it had damaged the Armenian army. Its record look frightening:
You can read more about it in the original article here.
Let’s speak a bit about inflation. Inflation has made a comeback in the US in the recent months. You don’t need to have any kind of financial background to grasp that the main culprit has been the money printer on steroids to finance the many stimulus bills, exacerbated also by the supply chain issues and labor market shortages. But apparently that doesn’t sit well with the progressive wing of the Democratic party which has been the main force behind the stimulus packages. Their narrative is that prices have risen due to corporate greed. It’s not uncommon for a political entity to try to gaslight its electorate but the problem in this case is that this narrative seems to have stuck with the majority of Americans which is a real pity.
This article has more about the poll.
I came across this Guardian article yesterday. Apparently a study of 27 million news articles published between 1970 and 2019 revealed that a substantial shift has occurred in the past decade. A rapid uptick in the use of words related to prejudice and discrimination began in the early 2010s. These shifts occurred in left- and right-leaning media alike. From the article: One possible explanation is these movements occurred in the context of already-heightened concern and preoccupation with bias and discrimination among the literati. Beginning in 2012 there was a rapid and dramatic shift in expressed beliefs regarding race, gender, and sexuality, which Vox’s Matt Yglesias popularly described as “The Great Awokening”.
And lastly, the cool and interesting pics and memes from around the internet:
True story.
We are in the clown phase it seems.
Here’s an infographic of the largest nuclear arsenals by country.
Another infographic on how the Russian and NATO militaries compare.
Genius.
The Starlink terminals promised by Elon on Sunday have reached Ukraine. Man of his word.
That was it for today folks. Keep up the good work. See you tomorrow.